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Ferrari F12 Berlinetta deserves half of new award [Video]

Ferrari has received an award from a British newspaper for the new 2013 F12 Berlinetta as the “Best Supercar and Luxury Car,” but is it deserving of both?

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Last week we reported that the Ferrari 458 Spider, just like the one Kobe Bryant owns, received the “Best Sports Car and Convertible” award from The Sunday Times Driving in the UK. The 2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta hasn’t even arrived yet in the UK, and it's already receiving awards. Ferrari has received the award this time for the F12 Berlinetta, from The Sunday Times Driving, an influential British newspaper. The newspaper has voted the new coupe the “Best Supercar and Luxury Car.” The F12 Berlinetta gets the award in the second special edition issues of the newspaper celebrating the Top 100 Cars. But is the supercar deserving of both best supercar and luxury car?

The F12 Berlinetta is Ferrari’s fastest machine with a V12 pumping out 730 horsepower and its not hard to see why the British newspaper gave it the supercar award. The Sunday Times Driving commented: “It sounds like it should be an uncontrollable animal, but most of the time the F12 is actually a rather civilized car. According to your mood, you can tailor it to be any Ferrari you like. Which is why the F12 is not just Ferrari’s quickest car to date, but it’s one of the best too.”

The F12 Berlinetta is Ferrari’s most powerful and quickest accelerating road-going production car to date. The new F12 Berlinetta gets 120 more horsepower than the Ferrari 599 GTB it replaces and will rocket the supercar from 0-62 in just 3.1 seconds. It will also motor from 0-124 mph in an adrenaline pumping 8.5 seconds. The F12 Berlinetta made its U.S. debut at Pebble Beach in August and the latest creation from Maranello drew a lot of attention from the thousands who attended the event. The supercar also received the prestigious “Auto Bild Design Award” earlier this year.

Ferrari notes that the new F12 Berlinetta has made advances in fuel-efficiency and emissions. According to the Italian automaker, both have been reduced by a remarkable 30 percent. This is partly due to increased overall aerodynamic efficiency, which they say is the highest of any Ferrari ever built. The new supercar boasts a downforce of 123 kg at 200 km/h and a Cd of just 0.299.

The 2013 F12 Berlinetta has been praised for its exceptional handling and extreme performance by the British magazine. Ferrari put the latest technology into the F12. The supercar features all-new carbon-ceramic brake discs and a double-clutch gearbox along with an electronically controlled differential and electronic dampers. The F12 also gets a completely new design for the rear suspension and special performance tires developed with Bridgestone, Pirelli and Michelin’s help.

The Ferrari F12 Berlinetta is nothing short of an incredible mechanical achievement and its easy to see why it has won the award for the “Best Supercar.” But being the Best Luxury Car may be a stretch. It’s been reported by Edmunds that the dashboard “architecture and execution” is very similar to the cheaper Ferrari 458. The cabin doesn’t seem to be set apart from its siblings and isn’t heads and tails above in style.

Ferrari describes the F12 Berlinetta as “a breakthrough car” and, with its incredible V12 power and performance, it would be hard to disagree. But the British newspaper has given the Best Supercar and Luxury Car award to the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta for 2012. As the best supercar it is certainly worthy.

Source: Ferrari

Watch the video below as Scuderia Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa get behind the wheel of the F12 during some development sessions.